Advances in digital technologies have led to new opportunities for business model innovation. This is not just true for digital-born companies like Facebook, Google, or Apple. Increasingly, it also applies to companies from traditional sectors, industries, and branches.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the next technological quantum leap began to emerge, which is now known as the fourth industrial revolution – or Industry 4.0 for short. New technologies permit the development of new business models. In general, a business model describes a company’s business processes in order to achieve a defined business objective in the context of its social environment. The term sums up visions, ideas, descriptive features, and design models.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the next technological quantum leap began to emerge, which is now known as the fourth industrial revolution – or Industry 4.0 for short. New technologies permit the development of new business models.

Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems are no longer niche playgrounds for scientists working in fundamental research. In fact, practical implementations of such systems in real-life applications are already in circulation and are sure to spread further as technology advances (e.g. in terms of the ever-increasing computing power and connectivity).

Artificial intelligence is making its way from universities and laboratories of computer science departments into companies, business models, and the everyday lives of consumers. The market for AI-based technologies is set to grow from US$ 8 bn in 2016 to an estimated US$ 47 bn in 2020. As recently as in 2017, AI technologies saw a 300% increase in investment activities.